Bangladesh: Secular bloggers live in fear after spate of killings

Couple arrested after police find eight dead new-born babies

Police have arrested a couple in their mid-40s after finding the bodies of eight new-born babies in the village of Villers-au-Tertre, in northern France. The couple are to appear before a French investigative magistrate on Thursday.

REUTERS - A 47-year-old woman was placed under official investigation for the suspected killing of eight new-born babies and concealing them in a village in northern France, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The woman and her husband, also in his forties, have been held in custody since the bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags at two different sites in Villers-au-Tertre, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Paris.

The case could be the worst infanticide in France since a 38-year-old woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing six babies at their birth between 2000-2007 in March.

The woman was placed under formal investigation, the first stage before criminal charges, for “voluntary murder of minors under the age of 15,” the source said. The babies were discovered by police on Tuesday in the sleepy village of 650 residents.